Mar Foz occupies a glass-walled terrace room at Foz do Douro — the district at the Atlantic mouth of the Douro, 6 kilometres west of the Ribeira and a different city in register. The dining room faces the ocean through floor-to-ceiling windows with bamboo roller blinds raised in the afternoon; at golden hour the Atlantic fills the room with the particular copper light of the Portuguese coast in autumn. The chairs are campaign-style, the tables simply laid, the menu built around the fish landed at Matosinhos. The best time to come is late afternoon, before the dinner service — the light is at its most direct and the room has not yet filled. Foz do Douro operates at the pace of a coastal neighbourhood rather than a city centre; Mar Foz benefits from this.
Foz do Douro, Porto, Portugal